He
walked into our house and greeted all family members, with and without fur,
with an attitude of, “Oh, you live here. Well, I live here now too.” He wasn’t
domineering. He didn’t try to boss or take over. He recognized Lani, our oldest
and only female pet, was the leader of the fur covered family members, and he
took an immediate shine to Jerry, understandable since he is the one who
rescued him.
We
called him Rusty Bear. Rusty because of the color of his fur and Bear because
he sure looked like one. But he was the sweetest, gentlest one in the bunch,
unless you got his paws. He had no collar and we had our vet check him for a
chip. He had none. We posted notices everywhere and no one called. We tried
finding him a home but before long we knew, he was ours for good.
He
loved long walks and the kids said people in the neighborhood would move to the
other side of the street when they saw him coming and often ask the kids, my
girls especially, if they were sure they had a firm grip on his leash. The
thing is, if you dropped his leash he’d stop in his tracks, unless he could see
our front door, then he’d just go home. The only person he ever terrified is my
sister-in-law and I half suspect he barked at her like that because she was
drunk.
And
even though all the pets are allowed on the furniture, he never did. He’d get
on the couch for maybe two seconds. His preferred place to sleep was by the
front door.
He
loved human food and eating meant getting a wet nose nudging your arm as he
asked for his share. We tried to get him to learn “Sit”, but he was never very
patient and it had to be repeated several times during a meal. More than once I
got frustrated with him and had him banned to the back yard so I could finish in
peace.
Then
again when he just wanted attention you could end up with a wet nose on you or
he’d rub his head against you. Other than Lani, the one pet he got along with
the best was Tiger, our cat. They were always rubbing against each other and he
was the one dog Tiger got along with the best.
From
the start He’d have problems with throwing up occasionally, then recently Jerry
noticed he wasn’t as energetic as usual. He took Rusty on a short walk and it
was too long for a dog who normally loves going for at least an hour. Then he
threw up several times in one night.
A
trip to the vet showed he lost a great deal of weight over the last month.
After several tests we finally found it was a large tumor.
So
on Sunday November 30, 2014 Rusty Bear Enos peacefully went to sleep in the
arms of his dad (Jerry). He will be greatly missed by his whole pack (with and
without fur).
